Record breaking jockey Hollie Doyle has been named Sportswoman of the Year for 2020 by the British newspaper, The Sunday Times.
Doyle’s career has been flying along at great speed in the last two years, which is testament to both her outright ability and her superb work ethic, and this prestigious Sportswoman of the Year award has been hard earned and well deserved.
Last season Doyle broke Josephine Gordon’s record of 106 season winners. She ended that season with 116 winners to set a new high for the most winners by a female jockey in a calendar year. This season, Doyle improved on that mark, incredibly notching up winner number 117 with a full two-and-a-half months of the year still remaining … and that at a time when almost two months of racing had been lost due to the Covid-19 shutdown.
In August Doyle became the first female jockey to ride five winners in a day.
Doyle also enjoyed a double at Ascot on Champions Day which was highlighted by her first victory at Group 1 level in the British Champions Sprint.
Doyle’s travel schedule has already seen her have rides at the Breeders’ Cup in America and in the Bahrain International Trophy where she rode the well performed mare Deirdre for Japanese trainer Mitsuru Hashida, in the process becoming the first female to ride in the that race.
Next on the Doyle overseas agenda is the Hong Kong’s International Jockeys’ Championship at Happy Valley on December 9 where she will be accompanied by her partner Tom Marquand who, of course, rode to such good advantage and enjoyed significant success in Australia earlier this year.
It underlines both Doyle and Marquand’s standing in their profession that both have been invited by the Hong Kong Jockey Club to take their place in a line-up with includes Ryan Moore, William Buick, Pierre-Charles Boudot, Mickael Barzalona and Hong Kong champions Zac Purton and Joao Moreira.
A win there, for either Doyle or Marquand, would be the cherry on the top of a stellar season.
